1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric shaver including a housing in which an electric drive for the cutting knives of a shearing head is arranged, and a shearing head frame which is held in a position abutting on the housing by a first latching means and, upon release by the first latching means, is movable relative to the cutting knives into a position spaced apart from the housing against a stop.
2. Prior Art
A shaver of this type is, for instance, known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,825. In that known shaver, an external knife frame is mounted on the upper end of the shaver in a manner so as to be parallelly movable away from the upper end of the external housing by a limited distance in response to the pressing down of a pair of detachable push buttons attached to opposite sides of the external housing. As a result of this movement of the external knife frame relative to the external housing, a gap is formed between the external knife frame and the upper end of the external housing such that shaving residues that have collected about an internal knife portion as well as on the same will be completely removed through the gap when washing the shaver in water.
Another washable electric shaver is known from JP 58-29479, wherein a shearing head frame is articulately connected to one side of the housing by an articulation means so as to be pivotable into an open position. In this manner, the internal cutting knife is uncovered, whereby the uncovered cutting knife is immersed into water and set into an oscillating movement in order to enable shaving residues collected on and about the same to be removed therefrom.
The option to wet-clean electric shavers does, however, not guarantee the safe and complete removal of hair dust, and it can rather be observed that the remaining hair residues will swell by the action of water and that, as a result, germs will be formed to an increasing extent on account of moisture, thus causing unpleasant smells. It is, therefore, still widely common to dry-clean electric shavers, to which end the shearing head frame must be completely removed in order to subsequently clean the individual parts of the cutting system by hand, using a brush or paintbrush. Conventional shavers are, however, designed either for wet cleaning or for dry cleaning, and it is, therefore, not readily feasible for the final consumer to perform either wet cleaning or dry cleaning on one and the same shaver, according to wish.